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 SEPARATE  STATEMENT  OF  COMMISSIONER  KEVIN  J.  MARTIN 
 Re:  New  Part  4  of  the  Commission’s  Rules  Concerning  Disruptions  to  Communications;  ET  Docket  No.  04-  35,  Report  and  Order 
 One  of  this  Commission’s  most  important  responsibilities  is  to  seek  to  “make  available,  so  far  as  possible”  a  nationwide  and  worldwide  wire  and  radio  communication 
 service  “for  the  purpose  of  the  national  defense”  and  “for  the  purpose  of  promoting  safety  of  life  and  property.”  47  U.  S.  C.  §  151.  In  order  to  fulfill  that  responsibility,  the 
 Commission  in  1992  established  network  outage  reporting  requirements  for  telephone  companies  and  cable  companies  providing  common  carrier  services.  The  information 
 gathered  through  this  reporting  has  led  to  the  development  of  best  practices  to  reduce  the  severity  and  number  of  telecommunications  outages  and  has  enabled  the  Commission  to 
 determine  whether  and  how  network  reliability  is  improving. 
 However,  the  world  has  changed  a  great  deal  since  the  early  1990s.  Since  then,  wireless  and  satellite  communications  –  which  have  not  been  covered  by  our  reporting 
 requirements  –  have  become  ubiquitous.  Moreover,  these  communications  are  now  the  first  choice  of  many  (including  Government  and  public  safety  officials)  for  use  in 
 emergencies.  It  is  thus  crucial  that  we  ensure  the  reliability  of  these  communications.  And,  as  the  Commission  found  with  respect  to  wireline  communications,  an  important 
 part  of  ensuring  reliability  is  obtaining  network  outage  information. 
 The  most  difficult  question  for  me  in  this  proceeding  concerned  how  the  Commission  should  obtain  this  information.  In  particular,  I  am  sympathetic  to  the  call 
 from  many  in  industry  to  rely  on  voluntary  submissions.  I  have  been  impressed  with  the  development  of  the  Industry  Led  Outage  Reporting  Initiative  (“  ILORI”),  which  seeks  to 
 accomplish  our  goals  through  voluntary  reporting.  While  the  Initiative  is  not  yet  a  perfect  solution,  it  is  certainly  a  good  start,  and  I  generally  encourage  these  kinds  of 
 industry  led  solutions. 
 In  addition,  a  voluntary  reporting  scheme  could  provide  greater  protection  for  the  information  we  obtain,  as  the  Critical  Infrastructure  Information  Act  of  2002  protects 
 only  information  voluntarily  submitted  to  the  Department  of  Homeland  Security  (DHS).  There  is  no  question  that  America’s  communications  network  is  an  essential  component 
 of  the  country’s  critical  infrastructure  and  that  sensitive  information  about  the  network  must  be  kept  out  of  the  hands  of  bad  actors.  Thus,  in  this  proceeding,  DHS  “urge[  d]  the 
 Commission  to  make  safeguarding  the  sensitive  information  that  will  be  contained  in  the  outage  reports  a  highest  priority.” 


 On  the  other  hand,  DHS  made  clear  that  obtaining  outage  information  is  of  paramount  importance  –  that  such  information  is  “critical  to  national  and  homeland 
 security  functions  central  to  DHS’  mission  including  planning,  incident  prevention,  impact  analysis  and  mitigation,  and  improving  incident  response  and  recovery.” 
 Moreover,  there  have  been  problems  with  voluntary  outage  reporting  in  the  past.  At  the 
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 same  time,  the  Commission  has  taken  steps  to  ensure  the  confidentiality  of  the  information  we  collect,  and  I  am  advised  that  the  Freedom  of  Information  Act  should 
 provide  ample  legal  protection.  Accordingly,  I  support  this  item. 
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